Builder: Stu
Language (i): rust
Contributes to: CTV prototypes, Char Network
Work (S/ED) A: ZBD
Before Bitcoin, Stu spent his days working as a Windows and IT system administrator. Its routine consisted of long boring days to sit on a chair engaged in monotonous maintenance works, reconfiguration of systems and reset password for users who had forgotten them.
It was the type of work in which a problem occurs that actually requires to attract your attention significantly is such a rare event that you end up looking for that something like this happens most of the time.
Stu spent almost every day browsing the Reddit threads during its abundant quantities of detention. But this turned out to be not such a bad scenario in the end, since it was so that Stu found itself in the Bitcoin space around 2017.
Like many bitcoiners, or a little bit about Bitcoiner, at that time, Stu was sucked into the offer of initial coins (ICO) and Altcoin Frenzy of the time. Furthermore, like many bitcoiners in that period, he ended up burning financially by some bad investments in random unknown projects where he probably should not have invested in the first place.
Inevitably the gravity of Bitcoin pulled him along the proverbial Tana del Riglio.
After a few years of learning more deeply on Bitcoin, Stu hit a period of frenzy and left his work at the culmination of the 2021 bull market to seek opportunities to work in the Bitcoin space. At that point, the rust of the programming language had become widely used in several Bitcoin projects and libraries, so Stu began to learn it so that it could contribute to Bitcoin.
Towards the end of 2022, his search for a work in space ended when he was hired by Michael Tildwell to work in ZBD, a company that integrates Bitcoin payments into video games using the Lightning network.
Work
Stu worked Devops at the ZBD, but in his free time he continued to work in Prototype Rust Projects.
“Most of my secondary projects are linked to what I was interested in that moment, since I worked in ZBD I started making games capable of using Bitcoin,” said Stu Bitcoin Magazine.
To start, he built a multiplayer web game, Rain.Run, based on players who collect lightning for prizes in Satoshis, to be more familiar with the construction applications that must be talked about a network. He later built a simple Connect4 game played on the Nostr protocol.
“[This] It was a great way to learn how Nostr worked, “said Stu.
“I attended BTC ++ in Austin in 2024, which was the edition of the script.” The four -day conference was the densest forum for the discussion on the improvements of the Bitcoin script and in the alliances in the last year or so.
“At the time there seemed to be a sort of consent for Bitcoin alliances,” said Stu.
“This made me really interested in how Bitcoin worked and [led] I to experiment with the taproot and bitcoin scripts … “he added.
“I didn’t really finish with much, but it was a great way to learn how the scripts worked.”
Tabonf, pool of payments and CTV
In 2024, Stu attended Tabonf, another conference focused on developers, who is held every year in Atlanta, Georgia. The conversations in Atlanta also rotated heavily around the alliances.
Like all conferences focused on developers, Tabonf has put a hackathon. Stu chose to create a project using discret log contracts (DLCS), which allowed users to bet on the result of chess games. It has become very obvious for Stu that the construction of software around the pre-Firm a large number of transactions introduced a lot of complexity for developers.
Discussing this problem, he said: “The response to this problem seemed to be controlled hemplasilifice (CTV). While I wanted to know more about the alliances, the CTV seemed a good starting point, so I started to integrate CTV in my dlc chess project. I could not believe how simple it was that it was everything …”
Stu continued to build a proof prototype concept of a pool of payments using CTV. Payment pools are a basic level 2 system in which larger control groups of two shares on a single Bitcoin output not spent.
“A way we can resize Bitcoin to be used by everyone, without using third parties, is that users share Utxo,” he said when he was asked why he chose to work on a test of the concept for a pool of payments. “Payment pools are a great way to do it, especially alongside other level 2 solutions such as Lightning or Ark.”
Alliances
The alliances have become a controversial question in the discussion on where to bring Bitcoin in the future. Each developer has his own personal opinion on them and Stu is no exception.
“I think uses alliances to replace pre-operated transactions is an extraordinary improvement for developers to build faster and safer,” he said. “Removes a lot of interactivity and friction for users, so it is less necessary that they are online or coordinated with other parts, which can improve the user’s experience.”
I asked him if this is what prompted him to build tests of concepts and prototypes using CTV compared to other alliance proposals.
“I was attracted by CTV because it was so simple to implement in the applications I wanted to build. Once the pool of payments with CTV was built, I was planning to do the same for all the alliance proposals. I understood how to get the same feature with Cat, but it took a long time to get a lot of time to make you work and I added much more code. cat.
“I am quite sure that there is a consent between the developers of the protocol that there is no risk for Bitcoin if we have enabled the CTV …” he said. “… So the topic now seems to be that users don’t want it. But users are already using applications and protocols such as lightning and vaults that would have improved by CTV. So … I think it should be the priority for the next soft fork …”
When asked about the current controversial nature of the discussion on the alliances and on the next soft fork and how to improve the atmosphere, he had this to say:
“Someone needs to convince Saylor to tweet an emoji sandwich and everything will be fine.”
“But seriously, I don’t really know. Perhaps more events in person in which people can discuss face to face could help. It does not seem a technical reason why we are not making progress, more political,” he continued to say in a more serious tone.
“I think a little hesitation is more around to make any change in Bitcoin. The reason why it is so difficult to change is an extraordinary property of Bitcoin, but it must not extend to the soft forks enough. Change,” he said.
The future
Stu recently participated in the Bitcoin Open Source Software (Boss) program of Chaincode Labs, a program designed as a way for new developers in the Bitcoin ecosystem to cut its teeth and quickly develop a deeper understanding and experience with the construction of Bitcoin.
Going forward Stu will contribute to the Char network, a little out of the Radar effort to build a new Bitcoin picket platform led by Jeremy Rubin, the developer who has designed and proposed CTV. He planned to continue working on his personal collateral projects and also contribute to open source projects, with the possible aim of starting to contribute to the bitcoin core himself.
Stu had this to say about the priority of bitcoiner who went to the future:
“Our number one goal should be to improve self -custody. It really sucks right now, and I think more bitcoiner in general must admit it. The backup of 12 words seems simple, but it is not that easy, and nobody is doing it.”